Looks great man. I dunno that I'm the best to critique such things, but it seems like you got all the good stuff there. A nice, clean, easy to use site that brings the user right to the goods. Nice big thumbnails, etc...
I like the whole "what I think are my best pieces" section. Only because When I've gotten portfolio reviews (mostly for schools though) I was asked by the reviewer what they thought my best piece was, and to show them that first.
i think except for the space marines (spacemonkeys are ok pehh) everything 2d fits into 'the best'. it's all realy nice work, slighty unpolished, and looks great. take out the average concept drawings, or make them interesting, and keep all the rest. i say, either leave only the best, or make everything your best, or your bad ones will make the rest look worse.
work-wise i think the concept design side of your drawings needs more freshness. perhaps only let your forms create the concept, rather than trying to come up with a new, cooler space ninja. as long as your forms and shapes are interesting, you're bound to end with an interesting piece.
Shotgun: It wasn't until I got the entire site up that I really noticed there was something wrong with my art, but seeing it all in one place really drives home the point that my art is not really as interesting as it could be.
I see exactly what you mean by doing some shape based drawings. I think I will do some more full scene stuff with figures using a new technique in the near future.
As I get new stuff I'll replace some of the space marine guys. I'll probably replace the black and white one with a environment concept I forgot I had.
Thanks again guys, and I'm really happy you like the site!
Looks good. Your 2d work is great and your 3d is coming along. I really like the simplicity of the site and its easy to navigate.
I'm not a fan of the Best section. I think its better to leave that up to the viewer to decide. Other than being redundant, I think it takes emphasis off the rest of your work. Your portfolio as a whole should speak for you. If youd like to spotlight art, maybe change Best to Latest as the latest piece of work you do tends to be your best anyway. With a latest section you have a forum to show off the new work you make plus it also shows where you currently are within your artistic development.
As far as art goes I think your 3d work needs additional attention. I would recommend stepping back and doing a few more traditional game art pieces with only diffuse maps. With your aptitude in digital painting, I think you could really shine there. Right now your normal map work feels a bit clunky. You might be trying to do too much with your designs at the moment. Im just suggesting stepping back and working on the fundamentals a bit as you obviously have a lot of talent.
I actually like this piece a lot as his pose shows a lot of character. If anything create a sketch section at the bottom of that page and place this, the weapons, and that brown colored environment in it.
Thanks Bobo. Those are some great suggestions, and I see what you mean about the "best" section. I really did include every piece in the portfolio because I thought that the piece was either very good, or that it showed a particular strength. The "best" section pretty much defeates the purpose of having carefully selected pieces. I think I will (as you suggested) relabel it "latest" and include maybe some WIP stuff in there if I have anything cool enough.
I have been really struggling with normal maps. I'm pretty much holding out for Mudbox until I buy a displacement modeling tool, and I just cant seem to get the same level of quality as other folks using a combination of baked and painted normals.
I like the idea of adding the "sketch" section under 2D also, since some pieces are obviously more finished than others.
Thanks for your comments! They are really going to help out I think.
Hey Aubrey, I really like how it came out. The desgin looks familiar Its nice a simple... click on a picture makes it bigger, click on it again and you go back. Perfect.
You should definately put up some more of your lugaru stuff, there are some great pieces there.
I'm with you as far as normals go; said screw z brush and I'm holding out for Mudbox.
Ok, I followed the link, and wondered why all your 3D stuff looked 2d. Its down to a bit of weak site design.
If you go to here: http://www.gnomesend.com/portfolio/ it looks like the 3D navigation tag is active, purely beucase it is almost the same colour as the bar beneath it
Your options would be
* Make all the tab backgrounds one colour, and the page another
* Make the tab background uniquely match the page background
You REALLY should be using CSS to define all the colours on the site too. Right now you are embedded it all in the HTML, so if you want to change the look, you have to hack the HTML. If you want a big change, you'll have to do that on every page.
It'll take you a few hours to convert the site to CSS, and trust me, you will be thankful later.
Replies
Good stuff man.
go here http://www.gnomesend.com/portfolio/
i think except for the space marines (spacemonkeys are ok pehh) everything 2d fits into 'the best'. it's all realy nice work, slighty unpolished, and looks great. take out the average concept drawings, or make them interesting, and keep all the rest. i say, either leave only the best, or make everything your best, or your bad ones will make the rest look worse.
work-wise i think the concept design side of your drawings needs more freshness. perhaps only let your forms create the concept, rather than trying to come up with a new, cooler space ninja. as long as your forms and shapes are interesting, you're bound to end with an interesting piece.
good work
Hawken: Oops, missed that. Fixed
Shotgun: It wasn't until I got the entire site up that I really noticed there was something wrong with my art, but seeing it all in one place really drives home the point that my art is not really as interesting as it could be.
I see exactly what you mean by doing some shape based drawings. I think I will do some more full scene stuff with figures using a new technique in the near future.
As I get new stuff I'll replace some of the space marine guys. I'll probably replace the black and white one with a environment concept I forgot I had.
Thanks again guys, and I'm really happy you like the site!
I'm not a fan of the Best section. I think its better to leave that up to the viewer to decide. Other than being redundant, I think it takes emphasis off the rest of your work. Your portfolio as a whole should speak for you. If youd like to spotlight art, maybe change Best to Latest as the latest piece of work you do tends to be your best anyway. With a latest section you have a forum to show off the new work you make plus it also shows where you currently are within your artistic development.
As far as art goes I think your 3d work needs additional attention. I would recommend stepping back and doing a few more traditional game art pieces with only diffuse maps. With your aptitude in digital painting, I think you could really shine there. Right now your normal map work feels a bit clunky. You might be trying to do too much with your designs at the moment. Im just suggesting stepping back and working on the fundamentals a bit as you obviously have a lot of talent.
All and all good stuff. Keep it up!
- BoBo
I'll probably replace the black and white one with a environment concept I forgot I had.
[/ QUOTE ]
Don't replace this one:
http://www.gnomesend.com/portfolio/warrior.html
I actually like this piece a lot as his pose shows a lot of character. If anything create a sketch section at the bottom of that page and place this, the weapons, and that brown colored environment in it.
- BoBo
I have been really struggling with normal maps. I'm pretty much holding out for Mudbox until I buy a displacement modeling tool, and I just cant seem to get the same level of quality as other folks using a combination of baked and painted normals.
I like the idea of adding the "sketch" section under 2D also, since some pieces are obviously more finished than others.
Thanks for your comments! They are really going to help out I think.
You should definately put up some more of your lugaru stuff, there are some great pieces there.
I'm with you as far as normals go; said screw z brush and I'm holding out for Mudbox.
If you go to here: http://www.gnomesend.com/portfolio/ it looks like the 3D navigation tag is active, purely beucase it is almost the same colour as the bar beneath it
Your options would be
* Make all the tab backgrounds one colour, and the page another
* Make the tab background uniquely match the page background
You REALLY should be using CSS to define all the colours on the site too. Right now you are embedded it all in the HTML, so if you want to change the look, you have to hack the HTML. If you want a big change, you'll have to do that on every page.
It'll take you a few hours to convert the site to CSS, and trust me, you will be thankful later.
I'll be putting in something to make it clearer what page you are looking at.
Thanks!
The site does a great job at highlighting your work and takes the viewer to everything he needs. No complaints there.